On the Importance of Being Nice
by inkvoices
Summary: Or: Twenty things you didn't know about Luna Lovegood.


Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe (including Luna) belongs to JK Rowling. I don't know where the idea for 'twenty things' and other such 'list' fics came from originally, but I personally got the idea from infinteviking's 'The Pursuit of Silence', which is one of my favourites.

On the Importance of Being Nice

(Or Twenty things you didn't know about Luna Lovegood)

When Luna was ten her Dad started letting her wander around Stoatshead on her own as long as she remembered to come back before it was dark. Once she was walking past an interesting looking house called 'The Burrow' when a gnome came flying over the fence and hit her in the head. Both of them were a bit dizzy and wanted to go home after that, so she showed the gnome a way back into the garden and went back early.

At the Sorting feast all the first years at the Ravenclaw table told each other what the Sorting Hat had said to them, apart from Luna. She didn't think that "now here's someone who lives inside her brain!" would endear her to her Housemates when they had been given sensible comments like "a fine mind" and "intelligent, likes solving problems." As it was, not sharing didn't endear her to them either.

The first time someone called her 'loony' she thought they were being clever, 'loony' being the slang for 'lunatic' which comes from the Latin word 'luna', which _was_ her name. By the fourth time she realised that just because it was clever didn't mean it was nice.

Sometimes people laugh at her for wearing odd jewellery, but Luna doesn't care. The corks on her necklace are from every time someone has had a butterbeer with her, not including her Dad. She wears it when she feels lonely as a reminder that the people who're laughing at her aren't the people who's opinions matter.

People think it's fun to take her things and hide them, like it's some kind of game. The first time it happened she compared the funny feeling in her stomach to how Moaning Myrtle must feel when people throw things through her for points, but then she decided that since she isn't dead and doesn't live in a toilet she doesn't have anything to complain about.

Luna once told Harry that being part of the DA was almost like having friends, and it was, just like Professor Dumbledore was almost like a wise uncle or grandparent to his students. She's a Ravenclaw. She thinks she's smart enough to know that 'almost' can be good enough.

She thinks that Slytherins are really very clever, some of them even smarter than people in her House, but only when they're not lying because lying is the dumbest thing you can do.

She likes Ron Weasley because he isn't the lying type, but she doesn't _like _him because he isn't always very nice.

One of the nicest things anyone has ever done for her was in her fourth year when Gregory Goyle sent her a bouquet of sunflowers on Valentine's Day. She caught Draco Malfoy yelling at Gregory for it, so she kissed the large boy on the cheek and told him he was sweet. She doesn't know which of them looked more shocked.

The nicest thing a teacher has ever done for her was in her second year. She went to hand in her DADA homework before class only to find Professor Lupin trying to put a Boggart back into a wardrobe. When it saw her it turned from a silvery orb into her Dad, who was bursting at the seams like her Mum did that day when her experiment went wrong, only she knew her Dad was in his office and nowhere near Hogwarts. The Professor said he was sorry and gave her a whole bar of chocolate, but she only ate a bit of it.

She likes being able to see thestrals even if she doesn't like the reason why. Every time someone tells her that the creatures she talks about aren't real she ignores them. After all, if she can see an animal that they can't it's perfectly logical that she can know about animals that they've never heard of.

Hermione Granger's idea about Harry Potter doing an interview for the Quibbler made her Dad a lot of money. Hermione might not believe in Crumple-Horned Snorkaks but she's the reason Luna and Dad had the opportunity to go looking for them. Luna likes that.

She doesn't like jam, House points, Muggle zoos or normality. They're overrated.

At the beginning of fifth year a blushing prefect took five points off her for being untidy. She'd come back from Arithmancy to find her underwear draw half open and her knickers tossed all over the dormitory, but no one had taken any. Maybe they were too embarrassed by the eclectic mix of lace and thongs, pastels and wild patterns, risqué and just plain funny. Maybe they didn't want to see a list of her underwear pinned up in the common room at the end of the year when she tried to get her things back.

She wears her Mum's Hufflepuff badge pinned to the inside of her Dad's Ravenclaw scarf. At Quidditch matches when she adds her roaring lion hat and a pair of green knickers to the ensemble she feels like her own little piece of House unity.

After her brief stint as a Quidditch commentator Professor McGonagall offered her a pass to use the Restricted Section for a whole week if she promised never to volunteer again. Professor Snape said he'd give her a pass for two weeks if she would write down for him, word for word, her whole commentary. Professor Flitwick smiled and gave her a book on cloud formations.

Her first kiss was with Neville, but she'll never tell anyone. It wasn't "I love you" or "I'm attracted to you" but "I care for you" and "I'm glad you're not dead". It was after the Headmaster's funeral and they were watching Ginny and Harry with Ron and Hermione – the two sets of two that made her and Neville the odd couple out in their sextet of teenage soldiers. Somewhere between the centaur's salute and the last train home he placed a gentle hand on either side of her face and his lips on hers. It was soft and slightly damp and a little bit salty. She kissed him back and it said "I'm here" and "I'm glad you're not dead too".

It hadn't taken long before Luna decided that she was going to be on Harry's side in the coming war because it's the nice thing to do, supporting the people she respects, admires and considers to be her friends. (It's also the right thing to do and the smart option to take, but the good reasons aren't always the important ones.)

When Gregory asked her if she would hate him if he took the Dark Mark Luna told him "it wouldn't be a very nice thing to do," meaning both him taking the Mark and her hating him. She's not sure if he understood, but when he wears his sleeves rolled up at meal times she thinks he understood enough.

Gregory Goyle listens to her talk about Crumple-Horned Snorkaks, even if he doesn't believe in them. He doesn't like it when she wears her butterbeer cork necklace because he knows it means she's feeling lonely, not because it makes her look odd. He likes scaring off people who are being mean to her, he likes buying her sunflowers and he likes all her knickers, not just the Slytherin green ones. Luna isn't sure if that means he's nice or not, but she thinks she'll keep him anyway.


End file.
